Olivia | August 26th, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

What a fun morning on the water! Captain Gabe received reports of several whales nearby, so we set out south through San Juan Channel. With our whales just south of Lopez Island, we decided to stop at Whale Rocks and check out the largest sea lions in the world- Steller’s Sea Lions! There were heaps of them bellowing over the water, swimming along the shoreline of this mini island, and snoozing in the sunshine. We also acquired some...

Olivia | August 19th, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 3:00pm

We had such an incredible morning trip that reassured us for an epic afternoon one as well! The T49A’s had traveled up and down the channel since we previously viewed them, and this time came right to Friday Harbor! We didn’t even have the chance to speed up and slowly motored under 7kts to go see them. We mentally prepared our passengers for one quick view before we left and came back later, wanting to reduce the number of vessels in...

Olivia | August 8th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30pm

With a gorgeous day ahead of us, Captain Pete, Co-Naturalist Alexandria and I decided to head south down San Juan Channel towards some potential whale reports near Salmon Bank, while also staying on the look out for other possible whales and wildlife in the area. Along this route, we were seeing heaps of Harbor Porpoises popping up with those chocolate chip dorsal fins. Just as we breached the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we started...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 07/28/19 | 1:30pm

Today was magical! So many exciting things happened.

Captain Sarah and I headed out of Friday Harbor, down the San Juan Channel and towards Cattle Point.

We stopped by this small island called Whale Rocks and found some Steller sea lions! I was incredibly excited to see these huge marine mammals because they’ve been up in Alaska for their mating season for most of the summer! They lumbered around the island as their harbor seal cousins...

Jordan | July 24, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 trip

What a fantastic day out on the water! As the sun went down, the hot day cooled off a bit and made our ride incredibly pleasant as the sun cast picturesque shadows across the landscape. Captain Pete and I heard reports of whales down on the southwest side of San Juan Island.

So, we headed south through the San Juan Channel, past Cattle Point lighthouse and headed into the Salmon Bank where we found a small group of Southern Resident...

Jordan | June 26, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 trip

Another lovely day began with leaving Friday Harbor at our newly scheduled time of 1:30 pm. Captain Mike, Naturalist Erick and I headed south through the San Juan Channel and past Cattle Pass.

A group of giant Steller sealions were crawling high up on the rocks at Whale Rocks and then jumping off into the water, making a huge splash! There were also some harbor seals down on the lower rocks near the waters edge. Due to the seals bone...

Jordan | June 18, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 sunset

We had such a great group of people today! Everyone was full of enthusiasm and eagerness to see wildlife. It felt like the first real day of summer; sitting on the boat by the dock, it was actually hot! The sun shone brightly as we headed out of Friday Harbor for our 5:30 sunset tour. Captain Gabe led us south through the San Juan channel, past Cattle Point and into the shallow waters of the Salmon Bank.

Along the way, we found a...

Wednesday, May 16 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 Noon

The M/V Sea Lion left Friday Harbor today and headed south into the glorious San Juan sunshine towards a report of two humpback whales near Salmon Bank, just off Cattle Point. Captain Pete, naturalist Rachel, myself, and our guests arrived on scene to find a giant humpback whale pectoral fin waving in the air! Humpback pectoral fins are up to 15 feet in length and we watched as this animal showed us its left pec, then its right pec, then...

[09/5/17- M/V Sea Lion- Kelsey, Naturalist- 1:30PM]

Smoke and clouds were overcasting the skies today, but luckily that provided for some awesome whale watching! The seas were glassy, there was no glare from sunlight, and looking for dark whale bodies surfacing for air against a light gray sea was easy as pie.

M/V Sea Lion departed Friday Harbor and headed south through Cattle Pass and towards Salmon Bank. A “bank” is what we refer to as a shallow portion of water out here in our...

Howdy from a very sunny and warm Friday Harbor!

This afternoon we had an awesome trip out on the Salish Sea. We left the harbor and immediately had a bald eagle fly over our boat, and a little while later we had an eagle fishing right off the bow! Eagles cannot retract their talons once they have sunk them into a fish, so they have to be careful about the size of fish that they attempt to catch. A fish that is too large might pull the eagle under the water, so they are very selective...